03/02/2022
Austin Gentry - BLOG
SIMILARITIES BETWEEN JESUS & MOSES
The more I read the Bible, the more I see that it is not just a book of many different stories, but how it is a book of many stories that ultimately tell one story.
Many of us see the Bible as a composition of ancient, heroic, moral stories that inspire and teach us. But is there a way that any of these stories go together? Is there a thread of commonality? I’m not talking about some bizarre conspiracy theory like how all Pixar movies take place in the same galaxy (if you haven’t heard of this theory, it’s actually pretty cool, but that’s beyond the point).
However, Jesus himself is actually the one who first explicitly suggested such a ‘connection’ between all the stories in the Bible—and interestingly enough, he claimed that every story was ultimately about himself. In the gospel of Luke, he says to his disciples, “everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled;” and “beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to [his disciples] in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself” (24:44, 27). Certainly, Jesus gives us the right glasses for correctly reading and interpreting the Scriptures.
The Bible, then, is not a book primarily about many stories, but a book ultimately about many smaller stories all telling the same, greater story. Jesus says all these stories ultimately point to himself, are fulfilled in himself, and find their greater meaning in his greater story. In other words, all other stories in the Bible are parts of the conflict and plot in the greater story of Jesus, in which the fulfillment of their story ultimately happens in his. In fact, his story is not just the fulfillment of these other stories; he is the fulfillment of these other stories. Because all the stories of the Old Testament point to, foreshadow, and find their ultimate fulfillment in Jesus, this also means that these stories will have figures, events, traditio
